Summary
Zack Snyder has been hyping up his R-rated director’s cuts of theRebel Moonmovies since the two-parter was first announced, but are the new versions any better than the original cuts? When Snyder made a deal with Netflix to essentially turnHeavy Metalmagazine into a live-action movie, they disagreed on the rating. Netflix wanted a PG-13 sci-fi actioner they could market to younger viewers, but Snyder wanted to make an R-rated movie for immature grown-ups. They compromised by making both, first releasing PG-13 versions and later supplementing them with R-rated director’s cuts.
When the PG-13 versions were released in December 2023 and April 2024,theRebel Moonfilms got eviscerated by criticsand the audience response was lukewarm at best. There was hope that the R-rated director’s cuts, which fulfilled Snyder’s complete vision for the project, would be an improvement. Now that the director’s cuts, dubbedRebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of BloodandRebel Moon – Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness, have been released, it’s time for a verdict. Are the director’s cuts better than the original movies?
Rebel Moon Director’s Cut New Titles & What They Mean
The director’s cuts of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon films aren’t just getting a fancy new R-rating; they’ve been given fancy new titles, too.
22%
56%
17%
47%
33%
66%
68%
According to their Rotten Tomatoes scores,theRebel Moondirector’s cutshave improved on the original versions of the movies. In its original iteration,Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fireearned a dismal “rotten” 22% approval rating from critics and 56% from audiences. The director’s cut has an ever-so-slightly better critics’ score of 33% and a warmer – even fresh – rating of 66% from audiences. These scores indicate thatcritics and audiences both deemPart One’s director’s cut to be the better versionof the movie (an extra 10% from each group).
The original version ofRebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver, on the other hand, earned an even more dismal (and even more rotten) critics’ score of 17% and a kinder audience score of 47%. The director’s cut ofPart TwosharesPart One’s critics’ score of 33% and has a slightly fresher audience rating of 68% (which almost sounds good).Both critics and audiences agree thatPart Two’s director’s cut is betterthan its predecessor, but the critics’ score is still pretty low. This critical reception suggests the director’s cuts improve on the movies – but not by much.
Snyder has plans for a trilogy of two-partRebel Moonfilms, which would amount to a total of six movies.
Why The Critics' Reviews For The Rebel Moon Director’s Cuts Are Still Low
Just because Snyder added some gore and nudity, it didn’t magically make Rebel Moon a story worth telling
The critics’ reviews for theRebel Moondirector’s cuts are still pretty negative because recutting a film as an R-rated sex-and-violence fest doesn’t magically make all its flaws go away. Just because Snyder has added some gore and nudity to the films, it doesn’t suddenly makeRebel Moona story worth telling. Whether it’s rated PG-13 or rated R,Rebel Moonis still a lazy, uninspired nothing of a narrativethat takes two movies to cover a story that Akira Kurosawa nailed in one. It’s derivative of countless better sci-fi stories, fromDunetoStar WarstoHeavy Metal.
The biggest problem with the PG-13 version ofRebel Moonwasn’t that its sex scenes weren’t graphic enough; it was that the characters were completely one-note. They were all based on the same stoic archetype, and they were each as underdeveloped and unengaging as the last.In the PG-13Rebel Moonmovies, the audience had no reason to care about the charactersor connect with them emotionally – andthat remains the same in the R-rated versions. It’s hardly surprising thatthe R-ratedRebel Moonmovieshaven’t won over critics, becausethe films’ fundamental flaws are still there.
Why The Rebel Moon Director’s Cuts Were Better Than The Original Versions
No version of Rebel Moon is a good movie, but the director’s cuts are closer to Snyder’s original vision
Neither version ofRebel Moonis a particularly good movie, but the R-rated director’s cuts are much closer to Snyder’s original vision. The PG-13 versions of theRebel Moonmovies offered a sanitized, watered-down version of the story. It’s understandable why Netflix wanted a PG-13 version, so their investment could reach a wider audience, but it’s clear that the PG-13 versions aren’t the movies that Snyder wanted to make.There’s much more heart and passion in the director’s cuts(even if they still tell the same lazy, derivative story with the same boring, one-note characters).
The PG-13 versions are perfunctory, but the R-rated versions are passionate. Of course, they’re also much longer. The PG-13 versions were mercifully brisk, telling their stories in just over two hours.A Child of Fireran for 134 minutes andThe Scargiverran for an even more forgiving 122 minutes. The director’s cuts, on the other hand, have runtimes comparable toLawrence of Arabia.Part Oneruns for a whopping 204 minutes andPart Tworuns for a slightly less taxing, but still very long 173 minutes. Viewers with a short attention span might struggle withRebel Moon’s director’s cuts.
Rebel Moon
Cast
From director Zack Snyder comes Rebel Moon, a sci-fi action movie set in the depths of space and following a colony that is facing the threat of Regent Balisarius. Sofia Boutella plays a warrior charged with recruiting others in the fight against the tyrant, and his unstoppable forces that are dead set on conquest.
